


This is Our Baby

by Tamasha



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cats, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gay, Happy Ending, Kissing, Light-Hearted, Love, M/M, Male Slash, Modern Era, One Shot, Relationship(s), Romance, Slice of Life, proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-17
Updated: 2015-03-17
Packaged: 2018-03-18 07:28:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3561284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tamasha/pseuds/Tamasha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin finds a cat in an alleyway and fluff ensues. :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	This is Our Baby

**Author's Note:**

> written by Tamara

Merlin doesn’t know how to focus. It’s as simple as that. We can walk down the street and one minute he will be talking about the trees and then five seconds later, he will ask about a crack in the sidewalk. He doesn’t miss a thing, yet he can’t pay attention to save his life. It’s the damndest thing.

“Arthur?” We were walking to Morgana’s birthday party. I was already in a bad mood, but it wasn’t on Merlin’s account; I just was probably just feeling stressed about work.

“What is it Merlin?” I couldn’t help but sigh deeply before speaking. I just wanted to get through the party.

Merlin tilted his head to one side, not even looking at me, just looking ahead as if I were in front of him. “Do you think we will get married?”

Honestly, the question itself wasn’t much of a shock, it was really that Merlin had the worst sense of timing ever. He knew I was already in a poor mood, and he knew we were close to arriving at Morgana’s house for the party. How was this a good time to talk about the future? “Umm. Well, do you want to?”

Of course he did. We both did, but we hadn’t talked about it yet. I wasn’t going to be the one who readily admitted that, or talked about it easily. Merlin stopped walking, and actually managed keep a serious look on his face. “I think so. I mean, I know I do want to get married. I mean, I think we are... Well, I hope we are. I’m pretty sure we are, because -”

“Merlin!” God, he would never should up if I didn’t stop him.

“Shut up?”

“You guessed it.” But really I didn’t want him to shut up. I wanted him to always talk like that, about how we would be together forever. I just couldn’t let him know that. “Let’s just walk the rest of the way in sile-”

“Oh, look, a cat!” Merlin bolted off down a side alley, leaving me to stand on the street trying to decide if I should go on without him.

Of course I’d have to wait for him; he knew that too. That’s why he took his time. He knew I would be in the same place on the sidewalk after he was done petting some dumb stray animal. “Merlin!?” I was starting to get really annoyed.

He strolled out of the alley holding a fat, grey tabby cat. It looked mangy and probably had fleas, but of course Merlin didn’t care. “Look who I found!”

“Great. Now put it back, and let’s go.”

“No! I want to keep him. He’s so fat and cute, kinda like you!” He held up the cat a little higher, as if I couldn’t see it before.

I crossed my arms, attempting to show I was serious. “Merlin.” He never took me seriously though.

“Arthur,” he mimicked.

I flopped my arms to my side in defeat. “Do whatever you want with it, but we aren't taking it home, and that’s final.”

“But look at how cute he is! He’s so adorable. And the resemblance to you is uncanny. Seriously, it could be your love child.” Then his face lit up, like a child’s on Christmas. “Oh my god, Arthur. This is our baby!”

He shoved the creature in my face, proffering for me to take it. “Ew, stop it, Merlin.”

“Aw, but he loves his daddy.” Merlin held the cat like a baby. Surprisingly, the animal took the abuse and let Merlin flop it around.

“Merlin, please, can we just go?” I started walking again, leaving him with his new pet. Merlin must have put the animal down as soon as I turned around, because when he sadly caught up to me he was empty handed. He walked with his head hung low. Then I started to feel really guilty. Merlin had always wanted a pet growing up, but he and his mother couldn’t afford to keep pets. He had some fish once, but they had died after a few weeks. He was actually heartbroken about those dumb fish. But that was Merlin, investing himself entirely into everything he did.

I eyed Merlin, then looked back in front of me. I didn’t want to seem like I was giving in, but I totally was. “Do you want to stop by the shelter after the party?”

“What?” He seemed like he had actually forgotten what we were just talking about.

“We could find a nice cat to adopt there, a cat we know needs a home.”

He stopped walking so abruptly, I walked a few paces ahead before I turned around to face him. “Really? You want to adopt a cat with me?”

“Sure. Why not?” I shrugged.

Merlin smiled his big, dorky grin. “You know what that means, right?”

“No. What?”

He shook his head, suggesting I had missed something entirely too obvious. “It means two things. One, you are allowing me to continue with one of my crazy ideas that you usually would hate. And two, you want to adopt a living thing with me. Something that typically lives for about 16 years. That means you don’t want to get rid of me.”

“Why would I want to get rid of you?” I asked sincerely. I really didn’t know how he could think that I wanted him gone. I loved Merlin to pieces, but the way he looked at me revealed I hadn’t shown that the best I could have. “Merlin. I don’t want to get rid of you. I want to marry you. I don’t want to be without you, or your dumb crazy ideas that I hate. Because as much as I hate all of your craziness, I wouldn’t want to change an ounce of it. You are mine and I wouldn’t change one damned annoying thing about you, Merlin.”

He didn’t say anything more, just ran the few steps toward me, nearly knocking me over when he hugged me. Then he whispered in my ear, “I love you forever, Arthur.” He kissed me so hard I thought I would never be able to kiss again.

He may not be able to pay attention for long, and he may be terrible at listening to me, and he sure as hell doesn’t shut up, but if he were any different, I don’t know what I would do. He is my annoying other half, but without him I would be incomplete. And who can live like that?

**Author's Note:**

> We hope you enjoyed this little story! We like the idea of Merlin being an animal lover.


End file.
